Here is a picture of my mule/blacktail deer cross here in North Central Oregon. I posted about this deer on the RELOADING forum. For those of you who don't know I shot the deer with my 3200 Hawk at a lasered 277 yards. By far the biggest deer in 20 years of hunting in this area. The blacktail influence keeps them from getting any bigger.
Redside

At least you got your venison and a rack. All I got in Kalifornia was a set of sore knees and hips climbing up and down the small mountains called hills toward Nevada.

Thars a fine looking animal - good rack

That's a great looking buck. Congratulations! Are you going to have it mounted??

Matt

Yes, I'm going to mount this buck. I think it is considered a good trophy for my area. Already have had a bunch of jerky from it too.

As a matter of fact after 20 years of hunting this same area I shot this buck in the same draw I shot my first buck 20 years ago, that one was "much" smaller. It was kind of a neat situation. I started the day hunting the low areas out of the canyons when I glassed this buck sitting under a juniper tree. It was right at the top of a small but steep hill. I had to come in from behind him to make sure he didn't jump a fence and cross over into someone elses land. As I sneaked along I got within about 40 yards of him. But all I could see was his hornes because of bitter brush in the way. Well the deer spooked and ran straight down the hill. It was too steep and I couldn't get a shot and the deer made it across a fence onto a different persons land and then stopped staring at me only 200 yards away. I'm a firm believer in not trespassing so I watched him cross the land and finally go up into the canyons where I could hunt. After guessing which canyon he went up my Dad and I hunted one of the canyons without finding him. When we went into another I could see about 1000 yards away my buck and two smaller ones. We sat down for about an hour and watched the deer work closer and closer until they were about 500 yards. Then they walked into a side draw of the canyon we were watching. We then went down through the big canyon into and looked into the smaller draw. Sure enough my buck was bedded down. I got a nice prone shooting position using my fanny pack and waited until the deer would stand up. After about ten minutes straight down below us another deer got up this was a huge bodied 4X4 with horns that measure 8 inches around its bases. I told dad before he got away I would shoot my deer and then he could use my rest to take his deer only 250 yards away and broad side. It all worked out perfectly, you can say we were a couple of happy hunters.
Redside

Redside,

Nice buck, especially for that area.

With your moniker and location, I would guess you are a flyfisherman as well?

Mike